Transfer 8 Week 5

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 9:24 PM

Hello. Again I'm sorry, but this might be kind of a fast and not too interesting of an email. This week has been a little slow, and a lot of it was dealing with a couple medical problems, so I don't know how much I can come up with to write about, but I'll try my best.

The only real investigator update that I can really think about is we are meeting with someone named Susana (Huang) who is doing really great. I guess she contacted the Shilin Elders, and started meeting with them, but they passed her over to us sisters when they realized she lived in the Beitou Area. They had already set a baptism goal with her when they passed her to us, so her date goal is the 28th I believe. So far she's doing really good, and it's completely possible that she will be baptized on her first goal. She came to church on Sunday, and just really has a testimony that she knows that God is real and will answer her prayers and comfort her. She shared her testimony with us about how before she didn't think there was a God, but one day, thought really long and hard about it, and realized if there was no God, this earth is kind of a rotten place...but when she realized God really does exist, she realized she had a lot to learn and prepare for in this life. She's really great and I just am glad to be able to teach her. She's been a great friend to us, and just loves to meet and talk. She talks quite a bit, so I feel like we are good friends and know her pretty well, because she shares a lot with us. She just called..haha to make sure we were still meeting tomorrow. So yeah! She's doing really good. We were going to share a third lesson on Tuesday, but ended up changing the lesson plan a little, because not only did neither of us feel good, but Susana just really said she knew an important part of changing is following commandments, and asked us what commandments she needed to follow, so we told her we'd share one with her, and shared just the first principle, faith, of the third, and talked about the Sabbath and its importance. She said she'd do her best to follow that commandment, such as talk to her boss and see if Sunday could be gotten off, since she changes jobs soon. I'm glad we have such an amazing investigator who is willing to put faith into action.

This past week, we did companion exchanges. We also will do them this coming week and next week, as my companion is the coordinating sister for this transfer, and needs to exchange with each Sister once(which means 4 exchanges, and we have now done 2). I stayed in my area and went senior for the day. It wasn't a piece of cake day, but went pretty well despite the fact that we had a full schedule for the exchange, then every single appointment canceled. We were able to get on the bikes, which is a rare occasion in this area, and go out towards Beitou and leave some notes on some members doors that the relief society asked us to focus on. I was able to set with with one of them, and by some kind of divine set-up, we ran into her when we went to do tours Saturday, and she was really excited for us to come over again this next week when she is actually home. I think the note really helped soften her up, because she's usually been a little standoffish towards sisters, and more attached to Elders. So I'm excited to go meet her some more.

Which reminds me, we did temple tours on Saturday and it was BUSY. I kind of liked it...a lot. Even though I've always been close enough to the city to do tours every transfer since transfer one (which means I've done it a good 15ish times now) I've never been in on a Saturday. I mean, I was sick and completely exhausted by the end of the day, with being so busy and so sick, but it was just amazing to see so many tours and miracles. The typical number of tours for us in a week, in the past, was 4 or 5 on a good day. On Saturday, we did 11. More than double what I normally do. We were able to do investigator tours, member tours, everything. We saw 9 referrals that day, and the temple sisters also were doing tours, since it's busier, so the tour saw a ton of referrals that day, and it just made me more appreciative of temple tour, because the point of it is referrals, and we were able to see quite a payout on it. Also, a really cute family walked in and said they'd passed by a couple times, and had some interest in our teachings and in primary. We were able to give them a quick tour, a Book of Mormon, and they wrote down their names to learn more about our church. I was glad I was able to be a part of the beginning of that teaching process. We saw a lot of miracles that day. Also, Chen Yiting, a new member from Zhongli came down to see me and tell me about her dating experience with a recently returned missionary. She's really cute and it was good to see her again. She really wanted to see me, so I'm glad she was able to come to temple tour and get that opportunity.

Nothing else really going on that I can think of to immediately talk about...next week my preparation day will be normal Monday again. This week it changed because we will head off to the temple in a little while. They changed how temple day works, so we just go every 3 months now, and it changes preparation day to Wednesday that day. So, I'll just have one more temple day on my mission,so I will appreciate it while I can. I know in South Carolina we don't live too super close to the temple, so the weekly MTC temple experience I had might be hard pressed to ever have again, but I think once a month or two can be good if we are focused on the purpose. I'm glad I get to go today....Write again next week.

Love you guys,

Sister Flora Bruno (Fu)

Missionary Email: Chinese New Year in Danshui, Taiwan

Hello, Hello. Today we created our new email accounts. It took me personally a ridiculously long time because it was having issues and didn't recognize who I was, but I finally got it. Woohoo.


This week, there hasn't been a whole lot that went on to talk about. I have bronchitus again...I got it in the MTC, and then I got again about 2 days ago. I went to the doctor right away about it, because it got pretty extreme pretty fast, but the stuff he gave me isn't working I don't think. There has been no status change...I cough so hard I start barfing and my lungs hurt really bad. People are really concerned about me, Whitney made me some kind of soup stuff and milk and brought it to me today...so yeah, that's what's up for the immediate. It's been raining for this last week, and I think that my socks always being soaking and my feet being cold all the time is probably the reason I got sick...who knows. All I know, is I hope I get better soon, because on the mission being sick is the worst...

This week we did not do a lot of investigator work, we pretty much spent the whole week going from lunch to dinner appointments. It was Chinese New Years. We ate a LOT of good food and really were able to become closer to the members. I feel like I know more members now in this area than in any other area on my entire mission, because I spent the last week with members...I just really felt the importance of member work as we sat around the table last Sunday at the Beitou ward MM's leaders table and shared our individual conversion stories. Since that was early into the New Years (it lasts 8 days) I was able to just see how going to members could be an uplifting experience from the beginning, and was able to just have a good time the rest of the New Years. I didn't fair too bad...I weighed myself before and after, and even being fed lunch and dinner for a straight week, and eating until I couldn't eat anymore, I only gained 1.4 lbs...which I probably am in the process of losing with this dreadful cough I have.. Not too shabby! One of the Elders gained 11 lbs, but he could use it, he's a skinny guy.

I know that's not a lot, but that's really all that went on this week...nothing really new to update about...Whitney got confirmed Sunday, and is actually to my left emailing with us...well playing on facebook and MSNing while we email. haha. She came to Zhuwei to give me stuff for my cold...We've been calling people to meet with us, since the new years is over...and slowly we will transition back into a regular schedule...

I'll send pictures now because not much to write. Love you guys


Sister Flora Bruno

Writing Mission President More Regularly and Whitney's Baptism

Time is flying! I'm going to write really fast this week because I finally have a jump drive, but I'm in Shipai in between New Years eating appointments, so this place is doubly expensive, so I couldn't buy 2 hours like I would normally if I wanted to send pictures. The good news though, is, like most missions (as I've heard) our mission is switching to the new email system. It was a little annoying as I got the pre-email to register in my account, despite having all the correct information, it said none of us are in the system, and when we tried to sign up, it took us to a Chinese page, and kept showing an error. We are with Shipai Elders right now (Elder Weinberger and Shumway) and none of us really understand the message, so we'll check into it again next week. President is requiring an email (previously president's letters were not TOO enforced, and most people did them every 2 or 3 weeks...but now it will be enforced) because the new system will make it convenient for us to email him, and help him know how everyone is doing (numbers wise especially) with a new graph system or something. I think it will be nice to get the new email system, it takes me like 4 minutes a picture when I send them.

As for news that happened this week...lots of stuff went on. We had Zone Conference on Wednesday. The theme this week was Using Time Wisely. We talked a lot about the importance of planning and was given examples of how to plan. The most amusing (although I think slightly apostate in some ways) part was that President's Assistants did a role play, where they were God, except they "didn't want to call themselves God" so they called themselves angelic messengers (who happened to not be able to go down personally to earth, so sent someone instead...haha so they were executive angelic messengers I guess!) Angel Worthen and Lysenko (my companion and I refer them as such these days). The content of the role play, was, they were planning on how many people they could save in the highest kingdom...in the what not to do section, they said Peter, James, and John were good...Steven perhaps could be good, but Saul potential was not high. They made some ridiculous goals and just kind of threw Steven in as Saul's peike...then ended. In their better role play, they put names to goals. They wanted to increase their numbers, so Angel Worthen showed confidence in Saul...said to help he would maybe have a rock fly out of the heavens and hit him, a messenger to talk to him...and see what they could do about converting him, since their Peike Steven couldn't peike now due to unfortunate circumstances.  Something to that effect. It was just funny and had a lot of scriptural references to it. Sister Ackerson was cracking up with a small part of the crowd, but other people weren't laughing. I think it's because people didn't know how to react. Haha I personally thought it was amusing to watch the reactions of everyone around us.

Also had Presidents interviews this week, that's always fun to go talk to the Grimleys for a time. That day was a little confusing though, because we had a tour at 3 and interviews in the morning, but it ended up being fine with us doing studies at the church, it just ended up being inconvenient because our 3 o'clock didn't show up! And I'd left my stuff at the chapel! As luck would have it, Elder Carter and Elder Robertson? showed up at the MRT right then, and happened to have their bikes, and they did some service and went and got our stuff so we didn't have to walk there and back. It was tons faster. I'm thankful Elders and so willing to do service, especially since we had been waiting around and totally rescheduled stuff to be able to, only to have the girl not come because she said she was uncomfortable.

So onto something interesting, or maybe at least slightly because I am rambling, and at this rate no way I'll send pictures (especially since the Elders keep talking to us (about how fat they are getting from the new year and how they will die if they eat at our McDonalds appointment in and hour) and asking me how to spell definitely etc etc) So!

This week Yan Yuhang got confirmed! But we weren't there, because we were in Beitou/Shipai for Whitney's baptism! It was seriously a fun service!; The night before the MM leader called and asked us if we could do a musical number. He didn't want Sister Ackerson to play, because he said that would make girls too small, so Elder Mao (Beitou elder) to the rescue! He is amazing at the piano, and brought in some amazing accompaniments (which I can't spell, and neither can the others, despite the fact that Elder Shumway tried to help me out and maybe even got it right, who knows, i'm sticking with this way)...so we sung Sweet Hour of Prayer to an amazing piano part and the spirit was good. The Service went well and Whitney did a nice testimony, as did the MM leaders wife, Sister You. Haha, so onto the amusing part of the ceremony, every baptism needs a comic relief...Whitney was really cute, she brought HUGE leopard skin bag with all her stuff, even a complete change of clothes, because she didn't want to take hers off so she wore them under the baptism suit...it was cute, when she was baptized she went in and one time was enough...after we are in the bathroom, and since she completely soaked a whole outfit, it took a little while to get back to the chapel...lucky for Elder Weinberger...I hear the blowdryer going quite some time, and finally peek my head out and ask Elder Shumway if Weinberger forgot an towel. Elder Shumway laughed and said, "Worse. He forgot a little more than that!!!" HAHAHA i cracked up so hard and told my companion what happened. We both were laughing in the bathroom, and the other girls were like "What what?" And we were just like, "Nothing..." So that was the amusing part of that baptism. Everything else was really smooth. I loved that we had a baptism that went so well. The spirit was there and we were just all really excited.

As for the Chinese New Years news, I'm doing pretty good. We've been fed every lunch and dinner (and even one breakfast this morning) since Saturday, and will continue that pattern until this Saturday. I like it because I'm pretty good at just eating until I'm comfortable, but some people are not doing as well as I am, it's not the easiest thing to eat until you can't eat anymore every meal...fortunately for me I've been good and I'm handling it fine. The only drawback is I'm scared I'll be gaining some weight, but It's okay, I love doing member work and really have felt the spirit and closer to the members these last couple days as we go to their houses. It's really good to get to know them better.I love this area a lot more as I know and love these members.And plus I've been eating some good food! I'll work on getting it back off after this Saturday. For now I'm handling it fine. :)

So that's that! I have to stop writing now! Love you guys, be back on Next week!

Sister Flora Bruno (fu)

Laojie Fire

Hello and welcome again to my life story from 淡水 Danshui. As for move calls, in this area it's almost like they didn't happen. Our entire district is staying the exact same, and even in the zone, one of our zone leaders is now training and opening up a new area, but same ward he was in before, so those two will live with our zone leaders...one new, one same. Also, in our 北投Beitou ward, Elder Kyle 欧杨 Olsen is moving down to 台东 Taidong..we both go home at the same time, so when Sister Ackerson 孙 and I said bye yesterday, we were like, see you when we are headed out together! haha. So yeah, not a big change feeling. With the exception of Elder Olsen, everyone else is still around. So that's exciting.

I actually felt it this week that we'd stay together. We had two investigators that would have been really upset if either of us moved. When we talked to Whitney about move calls, she teared up a little. I felt really bad and hoped neither of us moved as she said she had a hard time with change and she bonded with us...She said she'd been praying for a week already that neither us or the 石牌 Shipai Elders would move. And, none of us did. She's doing really great and she really understands and desires forgiveness for her past sins. She still is overcoming the Word of Wisdom, but she is doing a great job, and she continues to come to church weekly, whether we are there or not, so that should help her faith a lot.

Also in investigator news, Yan Yuhang 严宇航 is doing really good too. She is going to do her interview tonight and wants to get baptized on Friday so her brother in law can do it. However, since this last week, she couldn't get out of her house (she can only come meet us at the church if her husband is home to take care of her child) she hasn't done her interview, so we didn't announce the baptism on Sunday, so if she passes tonight, us missionaries will be doing a lot of calls to schedule together a baptism, especially since our MM leader in this particular ward pretty much doesn't even like his calling, we never have meetings and we aren't helped much in that aspect, so I hear baptisms are missionaries arranged here...usually it's half and half...but either way, I'm willing to go through whatever to make it so our investigators have a positive baptism experience...so yeah, if everything goes according to the wants she expressed, we should have a baptism on Friday...if it can't be thrown together, we'll just do it next week, but I don't see why we couldn't get it all together. We did spend quite some time yesterday trying to get it worked out so she could get her interview tonight, since we can't use the church on Monday nights, and the Elders and I will just have to spend a little of Preparation day doing an interview (Elder Kyle Broadhead and Elder You ?Sen 游？森 (sorry dad forgot his Chinese name...well one character) are so good to us). Yeah so we will have an interesting next week! But that can be talked about next week.

In other this weeks news, 陈芝柔Chen Zhirou is doing really great. She meets with us 2-3 times a week, and will even set up with us herself. We set up to go do a Temple Tour in Taipei on Thursday, so I thought we were set up for the week, and Zhirou asks, when are we going to have class at the church this week? We haven't scheduled yet! So we found some time on Tuesday afternoon after WPS to do it. I don't know how to help her father allow her to get baptized, 我还在想办法。 I'm still thinking of a way.HAHA. But yeah, she's doing great! I hope she can make her date.

And also we are meeting with a 江 Jiang Doreen who set a date in 5 weeks. He desire is strong. She's amazing. We taught second, and we went over her part to return to God (the gospel of Jesus Christ) just as an overview, and she got out pen and a paper to write it down! If that's not a good investigator I don't know what is. She still hasn't come to church, but she said she will next week. I'm excited about this week, we aren't teaching a million lessons, but our progressing investigators are progressing really great! So yeah, the area is still doing awesome.

And now, for the final story of the week, and maybe the most interesting thing that happened this week, Sister Ackerson and I had a day where we had a ton of lessons, and to make a long story short, we thought we had to go to Beitou next, and did, but we were supposed to be in Danshui to meet with Yan...so basically we stood her up. When she called and we realized we were wrong in our appointment order, we felt awful, but our area is too huge there was no way we could ask her to wait and come...but instead of eating dinner in Beitou when we had some time, since we felt like complete crap, we went back to Danshui and bought some flowers for Yan and left the on the doorstep and ran. She said we were too dramatic and she forgives us of course, and isn't upset, but we wanted to do something nice! Well, after we ran...we are about a block up, and Yan calls...so Sister Ackerson is on the phone telling her we just wanted to do something nice......and I notice a huge black smoke in the air...I'm thinking about how bad the Taiwan pollution is...when 3 Fire trucks whiz by with their sirens on. I can't even hear Sister Ackerson, but it clicks and I tell her to look at the big black smoke in the sky! 老街 Laojie is on fire! And we were on Laojie!! (jie 街 means a small street in Chinese ) So we walk towards the MRT back to Beitou, but walk along the coast, and find out that this HUGE coast guard type boat is completely engulfed in flames. Unfortunately we can't read the news, so I'm unsure the entire story behind it, but that's what we did for dinner that night, watch a boat go up in flames, and drop up flowers. It was crazy to watch the firefighters wait for the boat to come into shore, and there were standing in the cold weather with the hose trying to get the fire out...and some other boat starts getting close and spraying it too. I got videos and pictures, I'll send a few pictures, and the videos with a CD or something maybe next month when I have some money. It was crazy. There was a huge crowd watching. It's strange we ended up being in that place just when a huge boat was burning...that doesn't happen every day. I was really entranced. It was crazy! And that's the only thing really of note. Love you guys, have a good week. Write me and send pictures! ha.

Sister Flora Bruno. Sistah Fu4. 傅

Status of Work in Danshui, Taiwan Taipei Mission

Pretty much all I have to say this week is that this area is going great.  Usually there are dramatic moments in every transfer, but there has been no drama this transfer and it is wonderful.

I've really gotten to see the Lord's hand in this work this transfer since we aren't teaching a million lessons, but our investigators that our progressing are doing really great!  The Lord really has prepared people and it's amazing to be a part of his work.  He will help us find, teach, and as they have been emphasizing so much lately, baptize.  Yan yuhang came to church on Sunday and I'm pretty positive she will make her 2/7 goal.  She has really made friends in the ward and she's good about keeping her commitment.  She's what Sister Ackerson and I call the real deal.  She came last night to a dinner one of the members had for 2 of their birthdays, and it was really good.  She stayed longer than we did.  Her child is the cutest thing ever.  I'm going to try to take a picture with him and send it to you so you can see.  His hair just spikes up really high.  I love it.

This week was just pretty normal, we had some really good lessons with Chen Zhirou and Whitney (Xie Huiru).  I really felt the Holy Ghost this week.  They are both doing great and progressing well.  We just need to figure out the best way to go about talking to Chen Zhirou's parents.  I've been scared to even talk about it, but we will talk about it this week and probably do a fast with her.  Whitney is doing good, she came to church in Shipai this week.  We did splits because we had to be in Shipai and Danshui.  It was a little hard on the members I think, but this awesome Sister Sun (pronounced sooen) came with her old father and picked me up.  It was HARD to get him up the huge hill that Beitou church is on top of, we switched off pushing his wheelchair and I was TIRED.  I felt bad because she isn't a super young lady, but she's strong!  She's awesome.  But yeah, she had to leave after Sunday School, so I was really worried during RS who would take me back to Zhuwei...the only person I really knew was Whitney, who is amazing and would be willing to do it for me, but since missionaries rules are stricter, it pretty much needed to be a member unless there was no other choice.  But the Relief Society president helped me find Chen Xiangru who was really good.  She had Whitney drive her scooter to Shipai and walked with me from the Beitou church to Zhuwei.  I'm grateful she was so willing and we had a really good talk.  Members are so great to me. I'm really glad for their support.  I really would have a hard time without such great members.

This Friday we will get move calls.  No idea what will happen since my companion and I are the same transfer, anything really could.  I'd like to stay together for one more transfer, but really I'm fine with anything.  Whatever God's will is, I know that's the best choice.  I probably won't have too many more areas on my mission, if I move, that will probably be my last area my whole mission.  When the assistants shared about the way move calls worked, I realized when I went senior companion, I'd die in that area in all likelihood.  It was a strange thought.  I'm an old missionary now. I get my "death letter" next transfer. It feels like I'm still relatively new.  The mission passes by fast! But no matter what happens, I've had a lot of fun this transfer, and I'm glad I got to be here in Danshui.  I love you guys!  I need to go clean out my mailbox.  You can send lots of pictures next week.  haha bye.

Sister Flora Bruno (or as they call me in Taiwan--Sister Fu

New Cellphone Referral System

Sunday, January 10, 2010 8:00 PM

Hello again from Danshui (or technically I live in Zhuwei, but whatever).  This week was quite the interesting week!  This area is way different from my other areas, as that we do a LOT of travelling, so instead of finding ourselves booked at the church all day when we are busy, we find ourselves traveling the MRT from Shipai, to Danshui, to Beitou, etc. It's a new type of busy, and I'm getting way better at contacting.  On bikes you have maybe 30 seconds to plant a little seed and make a fast invite, so people usually just drive off, it's a rare special person who will set up...but on the MRT and Buses, you just are friendly, ask where they are going, and BAM you know how long they are stuck sitting next to you for.  And as such, I can contact accordingly.  It's nice and I've gotten a couple numbers.  This week and next week are finals before their Chinese New Year vacation begins.  Everyone says to call them in 2 weeks, but I hear a lot of people will say call me after Guonian once the new years comes.  I'll keep on it in both cases.

In other news, we have started a new referral system using our cell phones based off the Taizhong system.  I like it a lot, as our area is big, and this is an easier way to track referrals.  That way we know how many times we've called, we know who has no interest, as the uninterested are wiped off the system and just remain in the potential investigator records I diligently keep these days...and if they say call in a month, you can tell the phone they weren't interested for a month, and it will take them off until the time passes.  We are still figuring it out, but it's nice.

This week I had interviews with President Grimley.  He asked about my language study plan and I showed him my character study methods.  Then, I asked him about post mission if he had any advice for me. He asked a lot of questions about what I was doing pre-mission.  His final advice was to follow the jobs because of the economy and my major being more of a big business type.  He suggested, if you guys were willing, to start looking into options for me, so I wouldn't be at a complete loss of things to do when I get home, so i know 6 months is still a little while to be getting home, but yeah, it would be nice if you guys could start looking into my field and see what someone with no job experience and this random technical writing degree could get in America, Charleston area in particular. And particularly, is there any type of job I could get in a law office with my degree for a little while to earn money while I prepare for the LSAT (again) and apply for schools? Not sure what I want to go into, sometimes I think about going into library sciences like dad and looking into that profession too, and I think about law school, but those are the only 2 "thoughts" I really have on the future.  I probably can't be too picky when I get home, I just need a job.

Then, I thought our interview was over and he asked if I felt I was ready to go senior.  It kind of shocked me he asked I thought that's something they just asked senior companions about juniors, but I guess it shouldn't.  I know Gigi went senior fast, but right now in my mission, I'm pretty average age for coming up for consideration.  Everyone who came on with me (sisters) with the exception of my companion are still juniors, but will come up soon for consideration, and there is one that has been here a considerable amount longer who will come up first, but there just weren't a TON of sisters coming in these last couple...but I realize not this transfer, but the one afterward, a ton of people will go home.  It was kind of a shocking realization for me, because believe it or not, junior companion is the life.  We get to throw in our input when we have it, but we don't have to be final decision makers, we don't have to put together a plan every day...there's just a lot of stress that is given to seniors I've never had to deal with.  But, just in case I do go senior, I'm glad President kind of prepared me by asking that question.  I'd never SERIOUSLY considered I might go senior one day.  Haha.  But I kind of hope to be in this area with Sister Ackerson for 2 transfers, but I can't be picky.  We'll see what the Lord wants.

This week has been really good for our area.  We met with a lady who has been coming to church a Sister Yan.  She's from Mainland China, and she is sooo good!  She had tons of questions about baptism, and after she mentioned she hadn't been baptized at the beginning of the lesson, we told her we'd set a date with her after the lesson.  She then would refer back to baptism lots of times during the lessons, and would ask what she'd be wearing, and other such questions.  We set her for 1/30 this month, as she's already been going to church with a relative.  She also is really willing to meet, so we will be able to be in good contact with her to prepare her.  She committed to reading the Book of Mormon every day before we even invited her.  She said she has a lot of time, she can read it.  Her thing is she just moved from mainland and doesn't have a lot of friends, so I REALLY hope she can make a solid friend base at church.  She needs it with her family so far away.  She has one son. 

In other news, I went to the Shipai ward this week, so my companion and I split and went to 2 wards at once.  As such, I was able to give a talk in both Shipai and Beitou (I skipped out on Shipai for 30 minutes because I knew I was supposed to speak in Beitou sacrament meeting).  I felt like it was a really positive experience and got to know a lot of members.  I also was able to be with our investigator Xie Huiru, or Whitney.  Whitney is really awesome!  She tests this week, but starting saturday she told me she could see us all the time, since she has a 5 week break.  The Shipai Elders met her here at a Family Mart, which 7-11's, and Family Marts, and OK Marts are on every corner here in Taiwan.  They call her the Quan Jia girl (Family Mart in Chinese).  We get along really well.  She wanted to take me out for food on Sunday, but I had to refuse.  When I told her it was a commandment not to buy stuff on Sunday, she said "After I'm baptized, I'll never do it!, but I'm not baptized, so I'll buy you lunch today if you want!" Yeah, we'll have to teach her sabbath soon and commit her to it, but I thought it was amazing she already committed after baptism to keeping it, and nobody's really taught her a single lesson yet, she hasn't had time...but she did already commit to coming to church EVERY week, meeting with us all the time when she didn't have school...and has come to church and the fireside in Taipei the last few weeks.  She's really cute and it's really a miracle to have such awesome people as investigators.

Also, Chen Zhirou is really cute.  She went to an hour of church yesterday and said she really had a peaceful experience there.

Someone is talking to me right now (in English), she's a really friendly lady who lived in America, orginally from Taiwan, so I might not get a lot written...

So back to Chen Zhirou, she just called us and said she had a great time at church, she made a baptism goal for the 27th, but she really wants to get baptized around her birthday, the 5th, so she wants to move it up to the 7th (the first week of next transfer)...we told her we'd discuss it Tuesday...She can do it if she commits to coming to church the next two weeks, all three hours, and meets with us twice a week, but she's really going to need to show dedication to keeping the commandments, so we'll plan a really awesome lesson and see how prepared she is this Tuesday.

Today we are going to the zoo.  It's a really cheap activity here, and we are EXCITED to see pandas.  They sleep in the afternoon, so I had to get permission from the Assistants, I called E. Worthen, ya know, because he's my old ZOne leader, he should be my buddy...and he gave me permission to go early...but he gave me a condition (and I have to keep it for my whole districts permission!!) it was on a point of being more obedient, being my old zone leader he knows me better than the other assistant.  I thanked for his invite to repentence and accepted.  I will be more obedient this week...haha.

This last week we've really noticed the Assistants responsibility for inviting people to repent...as we've gotten it a little from both Assistants, and heard stories a lot this week. They did training after Presidents interviews and we talked to them for a few minutes as we waited for the Zone leaders to train with us.   It's interesting, but I will just say, E. Scott and Worthen are good at their jobs.  Haha.

Yep, that's pretty much what's going on in my life, I'm going to go invite this lady to church while she's here in Taiwan for the next month before she goes to Mainland, then the zoo, see you next Monday!

Jasmine's Baptism

Sunday, December 27, 2009 11:32 PM

This week has been fine, not a whole lot to update on.  This week has not exactly been the most productive and we have the lowest numbers of my whole  mission, but when I got here my companion was SUPER sick.  She felt really bad about being so sick, but the thing about a missionary, is if you go out in the wet and cold when you can't even talk in the first place day after  day, it never gets better.  Which, is what she'd been doing for 2 weeks and kept getting worse.  We went and saw a doctor who put her on a lot of drugs and stuff, and now, a week later, she's a lot better, so next week should be a lot more busy, at least I hope so...I'm not sure what it is, but a lot of times I move to areas that aren't exactly dead, but they are in transitions, so I get there and it's a rare investigator or 2 that are coming to church or progressing.  We supposedly are the sisters for 5 wards.  I know we technically go to two, and I'm not sure what our rights are on the other wards I know we at least have investigators passed over at times, if we find someone in those areas we teach them, and the Elders ask us to help withlessons such as the Law of Chastity for their females... so I'd like to find out, and if I'm in this area long enough, if we really have the rights to attend the wards too.  At least the Shipai one.  With so many different wards, I think a lot of good membership work could be done in this area.  I just by no means want to step on any Elders toes.  I'd just like to do more finding work through members, which means get to know more members.  It's all not certain how long I'll stay though, and it's going to take a lot of thinking, since all the chapels are in 4 different places of 5, and even the two wards that meet together are at the same time...so we switch off going to Danshui or Beitou every week, so that's already hard to get to know the members, if I'm only here a transfer, they would have seen me 3 times only at church.  So yeah, we'll discuss it more at WPS what we can do to pump up such a large area that doesn't have a whole lot going on right now.  I see a lot of contacting next week, but if we do things right, plan and stuff, after a week of contacting, and planning we should be able to fill up our schedule with appointments, especially since there is a lot of travel involved, so eventually contacting should be on way to appointments.  That's always the ideal, but its just not the case right now.  I'm not sure why, but that's how it was when I got to Jilong too.  It ended up being built up.  I guess every area goes through it.

As for any information of anything we did this week, the news is in Jilong.  Saturday I had permission to go to Jasmine's baptism.  It was amazing, but quite an interesting experience as well.  I felt really self concious because it wasn't my area and I didn't want to get in the other sister's way, but they were both really good.  They had me introduce her and sit next to her.  They sat next to her mom so they could get to know her mother better.  I felt the spirit so strongly at her baptism and I know Jasmine was one of the most prepared people I have had the opportunity to meet on my mission.  It was actually really not the perfect baptism for her, but she responded positively to pretty much everything.  First, the boy she asked to baptize her, has a bad habit of being late.  I remember last last week when she asked him to baptize her, she asked if he was going to be late.  He even laughed at that.  But then, he was honestly late!!!  I got up and introduced her after a song and prayer...I got to talk about how helpful she was, from the first moment she met us how she wanted to know if we were lost and help us out, and how she would teach us as she learned to apply the scriptures in her life extremely fast...then I sat down and a new member Yiting gave a talk.  I noticed towards the end of the talk Michael was still not there, and told the Elders to call him.  They got up and stood in the back.  After
Yiting, us missionaries did a little musical number from the primary hymn book.  He finally showed up in his clothes during the musical number and sat in my seat.  Then, it looked messy as we all had to change chairs since he was sitting in one of ours.  Right after the number was the baptism, so he was barely in the nick of time...but he didn't show up early like he was supposed to!  So, they never practiced.  They get in the font, which was cold, and he baptizes her good, totally under, but then E. Leavitt is like...Um, you are raising the left hand to the square!  So then, they had to do it again, but her knee came up, so they had to do it a third time.  In the locker, she was cold and was like, OH MICHAEL, it's all his fault, I couldn't breath.  But she got over it really fast and told me she was scared the first time, so God gave her the opportunity to do it so she wasn't scared and so that she was extremely clean.

She talked as she bore her testimony about how she was scared and it was really dark so she said a prayer, and before she even said Amen, S. Kunzler and I said hi.  Then she talked about how she went to church a lot, but it never felt RIGHT.  But, when she met us she was really able to read the Book of Mormon and feel the love of a Father in Heaven, a love she was never able to feel from a Father growing up.  It was a beautiful testimony and I was touched that we got the opportunity to teach such an amazing girl!  She really strenghted my testimony.  I know that God will put us in people's paths who are prepared and willing to hear the gospel if we are doing what's right.  That night we met her at the bus stop, we were just on the way to another lesson.  Jesus performed miracles on the way, and I've noticed that us missionaries can do a lot of good on the way as we open our mouths and use the Spirit and faith.  The Spirit is so important in our lives!  Always live worthy of his guidance. I've learned it is just so important to have the Spirit as our guide.  And that's the promise after baptism, is the Spirit.  It's so important to us as we do the endure to the end part of our lives.  How blessed we are that Heavenly Father gave us such a happy path to follow his Son.  The only way.  I read an article this week that helped me realize that the only intelligent way to do things, is the obedient way in which we give our will to God.  I'm in no way perfect, but every day I'm trying to be a little more better.  I hope you all can do the same.

I'm excited that I'm still in this area, I should see Jasmine Sunday at the monthly Taibei fireside, so there were no tearful goodbyes like with Sister Kunzler when she went far to Xinzhu.  Just a see you all Sunday. We left
right away after the service because I did not want to be home late.  We go t home in plenty of time.
At church this week, we went to Beitou and the member support there is really amazing.  I was happy to meet people who are so supportive of the missionaries.

That's my week here!  I love you guys! See you next week!

Sister Flora Bruno